Paris - French film director and producer Claude Berri died Monday in Paris at the age of 74, French media reported.

Berri, who was admitted to hospital late Saturday after suffering a stroke, produced some of the biggest recent box office and critical hits in French cinema, including Welcome to the Sticks, The Secret of the Grain and Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra.

He also produced a number of well-known international hits, such as Roman Polanski's Tess, Taking Off and Valmont by Milos Forman and Pedro Alomodovar's Everything About my Mother.

Berri's biggest successes as a director were arguably his film versions of two novels by Marcel Pagnol, Manon of the Spring and Jean de Florette.

"Many people thought the films would never work," he said. "They didn't give a damn about Pagnol."

Nonetheless, the movies attracted drew 7 million spectators in France.

Berri was born on July 1, 1934, in Paris, and began his film career at the age of 19 as an actor. Ten years later, he was fed up with small roles and turned to directing.

"As my father said, it is better to be a street sweeper than an unemployed actor," he commented at the time.

His first film was a short called The Chicken, and it won both a price at the Venice Film Festival and the Oscar for best live-action short.

"This was the greatest joy of my life," he said later. "I never again felt anything similar." dpa